Founders, be wary of advice to ditch trad media, pr agencies, etc and rely solely on your own media channels.

The whole value of PR is that it& #39;s NOT your own channel.

You want both (THREAD).
PR isn& #39;t a one-size-fits-all thing. If u want to announce a new product or feature u want to be in whatever media yr users are consuming--e.g. via a news outlet, an influencer, a podcast, etc. That obviously will look v diff if you are a DTC shoe brand than say security software.
Sometimes most valuable outlets = natl papers or tech sites. But say ur working to apply AI to a construction problem. U want 2 be in the trade pub the construction execs read. Facing a regulatory issue in Europe? Most in Brussels read the FT. DTC makeup brand? Beauty influencers
I agree w/ advice from @arrington @balajis etc that having ur own channel is important. You can/should build a legion of fans/customers who want to hear directly from the source. They also become your evangelists. But u prob can& #39;t rely on that alone, particularly as u grow.
Your channel is essentially advertising--it& #39;s your words, marketed to others. That def. has value, but it& #39;s often not the same as when a 3rd party writes about u. When someone who wasn& #39;t paid to write about u writes something about ur company it& #39;s perceived as more trustworthy.
That said, founders do waste a lot on PR they don& #39;t need and/or can& #39;t get (but pay to try to get), eg. ego/personal profile pr, fundraising announcements, trying to get natl papers to care abt a prod launch. Going direct here makes more sense.
Finally, sometimes not engaging w/ media is a smart move. (Loads could be written abt when!) But engaging is a way to try to shape the story--good journos don& #39;t come in with a fully baked story, even if they have biases.
Navigating diff pubs/journos is a skill--IMO founders prob have better things to spend time on

Also, here& #39;s the real machiavellian take: responding will at a minimum take up column inches that otherwise could& #39;ve been aimed at attacking you. :-)
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